Height seems as though it is one of the few things that is predetermined in life. You are either tall, or short, or neither. Period.

But is this true for everybody?

Height can play the role of a determinant of importance in many cultures, and therefore could completely affect the psyche of an individual. Taller men have been found to earn more in their jobs by some studies. So if a man were to have the ability to grow a couple inches, he could completely change his life.

But can you really influence how tall you grow?

My answer is yes.

For some people. From my own experience, when I was implementing my natural testosterone-enhancement techniques outlined in TestShock, I grew 2 inches. Testosterone helped me grow, but with that being said, I also fell under two important conditions to growth that will actually determine your ability to grow.

There are two factors that can determine whether or not you can actually grow taller

Age

When I grew my two inches, I was under 25 years of age. Twenty-five is the proposed magic number for when men stop growing naturally, although there is most likely slight variance between individuals. Twenty-five is the stopping point because this is the year when growth plates stop maturing in men.

Growth plates are cartilage at the end of your long bones that are responsible for bone growth during maturation. When full maturation occurs the growth, or epiphyseal, plate becomes an epiphyseal line.

When you grow, there is a constant mitotic division of cells that causes an aggregation along the epiphyseal end of the cartilage. This happens often in the adolescent years in a process known as diaphysis, where old cells stack up along the main shaft of the long bone.

If you are under the age of 25, you still have a chance to raise your growth potential.

You can do this by changing your estrogen to testosterone ratio, which is very important in determining growth potential.

When you are younger, a higher proportion of estrogen will cause apoptosis (death) or the cells that were supposed to become new bone and cause growth. When you have higher estrogen levels, the apoptosis will eventually halt growth, so when you are younger, it is very important for men to control estrogen production by raising testosterone levels.

This is why you often see that young men who run cross-country and distance track races in their adolescent years will be shorter. This will obviously come with exceptions due to the genetics point coming next, but scientifically, testosterone levels decline with high levels of endurance training. When you achieve this level of endurance training in adolescence it can have dire effects on your growth because when testosterone levels are lower in growing men, growth will be stunted.

Once you are over the age of 25, your growth plates are done maturing. There is only one known way to grow taller after this occurs. You must undergo a surgery known as distraction osteogenesis, which is a procedure to elongate your bones. Your bones will be surgically fractured in an attempt to grow new bone cells in the fracture gap.

That doesn’t really sound like too much fun. Unfortunately for older readers, this is really the only way to grow after growth plate maturation is fully complete.

If you are a younger reader, take advantage of the time you have and monitor your estrogen to testosterone ratio and make sure your testosterone levels are high enough to optimize your growth while you can.

Genetics

So now we have established that if you are OVER 25 years of age, there’s no real way that I can help you physically grow taller.

If you are under 25 you might be wondering, “How tall can I actually grow?” There is a short formula you can try out to determine your growth potential.

Take your mother’s height in inches and add it to your father’s height in inches. Men add five inches to that number and women subtract five inches. Divide this new number by two. This should be your growth potential in inches with a standard deviation of four inches. Now of course, this formula will not be accurate for every person, there will always be outliers in either direction.

For me, I reached four inches above my growth potential according to the formula.

Because of this, I do not expect to grow any more. I attribute the extra four inches partly to genetics and partly to my optimization of the estrogen to testosterone ratio.

How Can You Grow Taller Too?

First, make sure your diet and training are being used to raise testosterone levels. Use the TestShock program and the other articles on this blog.

Growth hormone production is clearly an important thing to take into consideration. Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and testosterone work very synergistically. If you work at raising both, they will complement each other very well and they will both elevate quickly.

The good news is, HGH is elevated in very similar ways to testosterone. Decrease your endurance training and instead, work on High Intensity Interval Training. HGH is produced during the rest periods between intervals in an attempt to repair the damaged muscles.

Diet is also key. Both testosterone and HGH work inversely with insulin. If you keep your body fat level low, more HGH will be produced.

In addition to this, you will want to sleep as much as possible. Deep sleep is the most important time in your circadian cycle for growth hormone secretion. When I was younger, I used to sleep for around 15 hours a day if I could. You will see this as a common trend among adolescent boys.

They will also eat like crazy when they are awake. This is the body’s attempt to try to keep up with the growth, but with a good amount of quality sleep, you will see a rise in testosterone levels. This is very important for younger men playing sports!!

Don’t be stupid and take anabolic steroids in your growing years.

When I played football and baseball in high school, I was surrounded by 16-year-olds taking steroids. They could smack a baseball and a quarterback, but the cost of that high school success was high.

Anabolic steroids are known to stunt bone growth in teens and lower spermatogenesis. They also elevate blood pressure and increase risk of heart attack.

One study looked at teens with asthma. Asthmatics take oral steroids through their inhalers constantly. Results showed that, on average, teens with asthma were about a half an inch shorter than kids that do not take steroids.

Finally, this is a tip for everybody reading this article of any age who wants to look taller.

Posture plays a very important role. If you are a sloucher, you can appear one to two inches taller simply by improving your posture. Not to mention, a powerful stance and pose will actually increase your confidence and along with it your testosterone levels.

Body language plays a role in hormonal secretion.

While this is not a way to actually grow your bones, it is the only way to get “taller” without undergoing painful surgery. I’m sure some of the readers over 25 are wishing they would have read this article earlier.

But if you are under 25 and are still growing, take advantage of these years. Optimize testosterone production while you can to keep your estrogen in check so you can reach that four inches ABOVE your predicted growth potential, like I did.

So, does testosterone make you taller? Is it possible to grow taller with it? Of course!

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Christopher Walker

Christopher Walker is a co-founder of UMZU and creator of the Thermo Diet. He is the first person to get a Duke Neuroscience degree in 3 years. After naturally solving his own health complications with a brain tumor as a teenager, he has devoted his life to creating all-natural products and education to help men, women, children and pets to improve their own health naturally using science-backed research.

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